Understanding Variation in The Effects of Heterospecific Pollen Receipt: The Effect of Pollen and Recipient Traits

Authors' Affiliations

Cheril Patel and Dr. Gerardo Arceo-Gomez, Department of Biological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN.

Location

Ballroom

Start Date

4-5-2018 8:00 AM

End Date

4-5-2018 12:00 PM

Poster Number

9

Name of Project's Faculty Sponsor

Gerardo Arceo-Gomez

Faculty Sponsor's Department

Biological Sciences

Classification of First Author

Undergraduate Student

Type

Poster: Competitive

Project's Category

Natural Sciences

Abstract or Artist's Statement

Co-flowering plants within communities typically share pollinators which can lead to the deposition of pollen grains from varying species onto stigmas; or heterospecific pollen transfer (HPT). It has been shown that HPT can have varying effects on plant reproductive success. These effects can range from an 80% reduction on seed production to no effect. However, to date, there are no studies that have evaluated the causes underlying variability of these effects. We investigated this variability through a greenhouse experiment. Hand-pollinations were conducted with a mix of conspecific and heterospecific pollen and a control (conspecific pollen only). We used six pollen recipient and four species as donors for the heterospecific pollen (5 treatments total) We conducted hand-pollinations on a minimum of 10 plants per species (584 total pollinations). After pollination seed set data was recorded for each treatment and the amount of conspecific and heterospecific pollen on stigmas was recorded. We evaluated if the effects of HPT can be explained by the recipient species, the donor species or the interaction between donor and recipient. The results show high variability in the magnitude of HPT(2-93) but this variability is not a result of donor characteristics or even recipient characteristics but a result of the interactions between donors and recipients (df=20, α=.05, p=0.015). We will further investigate if the interaction can be explained by stigma/pollen size ratio, degree of co-flowering, or phylogenetic distance between donor and recipient species. This study will contribute to advance our understanding of how co-flowering plant communities interact amongst themselves after pollination.

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Apr 5th, 8:00 AM Apr 5th, 12:00 PM

Understanding Variation in The Effects of Heterospecific Pollen Receipt: The Effect of Pollen and Recipient Traits

Ballroom

Co-flowering plants within communities typically share pollinators which can lead to the deposition of pollen grains from varying species onto stigmas; or heterospecific pollen transfer (HPT). It has been shown that HPT can have varying effects on plant reproductive success. These effects can range from an 80% reduction on seed production to no effect. However, to date, there are no studies that have evaluated the causes underlying variability of these effects. We investigated this variability through a greenhouse experiment. Hand-pollinations were conducted with a mix of conspecific and heterospecific pollen and a control (conspecific pollen only). We used six pollen recipient and four species as donors for the heterospecific pollen (5 treatments total) We conducted hand-pollinations on a minimum of 10 plants per species (584 total pollinations). After pollination seed set data was recorded for each treatment and the amount of conspecific and heterospecific pollen on stigmas was recorded. We evaluated if the effects of HPT can be explained by the recipient species, the donor species or the interaction between donor and recipient. The results show high variability in the magnitude of HPT(2-93) but this variability is not a result of donor characteristics or even recipient characteristics but a result of the interactions between donors and recipients (df=20, α=.05, p=0.015). We will further investigate if the interaction can be explained by stigma/pollen size ratio, degree of co-flowering, or phylogenetic distance between donor and recipient species. This study will contribute to advance our understanding of how co-flowering plant communities interact amongst themselves after pollination.